Marilyn Maye: "THE HAPPIEST SOUND IN TOWN"

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FEINSTEIN'S AT LOEWS REGENCY, the nightclub proclaimed "Best of New York" by New York Magazine and "an invaluable New York institution" by The New York Post, will continue its Spring 2012 season with the return engagement of Grammy Award nominated singer and entertainer MARILYN MAYE. Her new show – “The Happiest Sound In Town” – is her annual birthday celebration and features some of her most-requested numbers including “Guess Who I Saw Today,” “Bye Bye Country Boy,” “Rain” and “Golden Rainbow.” Another highlight of the show, “Come In From The Rain,” was a personal favorite of Johnny Carson; Maye performed it many times on “The Tonight Show” at his personal invitation. Maye’s recent local appearances have been received with rave reviews and full houses. Stephen Holden’s New York Times review of her Feinstein’s show last season stated “By the end of the evening, as is usually the case with her shows, I was walking on air, infused with a giddy certainty that life really is a cabaret.” To quote Rex Reed in The New York Observer, “Her show is not to be missed. It’s a master class in singing conducted by a polished pro who majored in unforgettable.” Maye will be joined by pianist/conductor Billy Stritch, who has accompanied her over a period of 20 years, bassist Tom Hubbard, and Jim Eklof, her drummer, who recently celebrated 50 years with Ms. Maye. The show runs Tuesday, April 24 to Saturday, May 5 at the Loews Regency Hotel (540 Park Avenue at 61st Street).

MARILYN MAYE – dubbed “Super Singer” by the late Johnny Carson – has been heralded for her amazing vocal dexterity, the sheer excitement, boundless energy and authenticity of her performances, as well as the unique party atmosphere she creates wherever she appears. Stephen Holden, in another recent New York Times review, declared “As Marilyn Maye threaded her way from the stage through a packed house of cheering admirers; I overheard comparisons to Judy Garland’s 1961 concert at Carnegie Hall. You can sense a similar electric connection between singer and audience.” In a 2010 Wall Street Journal profile, Will Friedwald raved “Marilyn Maye is pretty much every singer you ever wanted to hear: She has the rhythm and the musicianship of a great jazz singer, the projection and personality of a heavyweight Broadway diva and creates the intimate bond with her audiences that we demand from a cabaret artist.”

In her early years, Marilyn worked in a variety of nightclubs around the midwest, including an eleven-year engagement in Kansas city at a club, The Colony. She was ultimately discovered by Steve Allen, who invited her to appear on his primetime television show. Soon after, Marilyn signed a recording contract with RCA which resulted in seven albums and 34 singles. In 1966, after Ed McMahon heard her at the Living Room in New York, she began appearing on “The Tonight Show,” starring Johnny Carson. She holds the singer’s record of 76 appearances. In the 1970s, Marilyn made the transition to theater, starring in productions of Can Can, Follies and Jerry Herman’s blockbuster musicals Mame and Hello, Dolly!

Her recording of the song “Too Late Now” – from her RCA album The Lamp Is Low – was chosen by the Smithsonian Institute and included in its 20th Century permanent collection. Add her 76 appearances on “The Tonight Show,” multiple appearances on national prime-time television shows, such as Ed Sullivan, Hollywood Palace, Jackie Gleason, Dick Cavett and more, a Grammy Award nomination as “Best New Artist,” a bevy of awards reflecting her showmanship, and you have an illustrious singing career that is still going strong after a lifetime spent entertaining audiences.

After a fourteen-year absence from New York, though she never stopped working in other parts of the country, Ms. Maye returned to appear as a special guest of the annual Mabel Mercer Cabaret Convention at Lincoln Center. A series of glowingly-reviewed New York performances was followed by more concerts. As a result of this resurgence in New York, Maye has never been busier. She has performed twice with Peter Nero and the Philly Pops, with Michael Feinstein at Zankel Hall, with Doc Severinsen and the Phoenix Symphony, the Colony Hotel in Palm Beach, Catalina’s Jazz Club in Hollywood, the Rrazz Room in San Francisco, Dakota’s in Minneapolis, as well as other major symphonies, clubs and theater concerts around the country.

Marilyn is the winner of the coveted Jazz Heritage Award, the 2008 and 2009 Nightlife Critics Award as “Outstanding Vocalist”, the Back Stage Bistro “Lifetime Achievement Award” and the MAC “Celebrity of the Year” award for four consecutive years from 2009 to 2012. The Bruekelein Institute presented Marilyn their 2009 Gaudium Award for “Illuminating the Horizon of Human Experience.” In 2010 she was presented the Mabel Mercer Foundation’s the rare “Mabel Award”, the Licia Albanese-Puccini Society honored her with their “Lifetime Achievement Award.” And, in October, 2011 the University of Missouri/Kansas City awarded her the “Lifetime Achievement Award.”

In November 2010 at Carnegie Hall, Marilyn sang with the New York Pops for the celebration of Stephen Sondheim’s 80th Birthday. Her performance of “I’m Still Here” received a show-stopping standing ovation. More information is available at www.marilynmaye.com

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• MARILYN MAYE